Cut paw

[ampersat]

Hey all, I rarely post here so if this is a well worn topic, please forgive me. One of my dogs has cut a pad on her rear paw. It looks pretty deep and nasty. She did it a couple of days ago and she's still doing the three legged run around the backyard. She'll walk on it in the house though. It doesn't bleed anymore but it looks pretty oozy. There's no swelling on it and it doesn't appear infected.

How bad does a cut pad have to be before you consider it something that has to be dealt with? How do you deal with it?

[Chromaflage]

Deep cut pads will usually bleed pretty good - this requires immediate pressure dressing. Pad injuries can take a long time to heal because there is no blood supply to the outer, hard part of the pad - it doesn't fuse back together very well. So, every time the dog puts weight on the pad, it disrupts the haling process.

I would recommend cleaning the injuty with warm water and hydrogen peroxide. Then apply neosporin to the cut. Wrap the paw with gauze, reinforce the wrap with either tape or a small elastic sport wrap. Then what I do is put a bootie on the paw - like the ones used for upland dogs. I'd clean it and redress twice a day and keep the dog of rough, uneven groud surfaces.

If you don't see any improvement after a few days, I get the dog to the vet.

My .02.

ORS

[ 11-12-2003, 08:00 AM: Message edited by: OregonRedside ]

[Wet_Willy]

Amp,
Been through cut pads several times and my dog has always done fine if I kept them clean and covered as they heal up. If you can get your hands on some "vet wrap" stretchy tape that breathes it will help to keep a gauze pad in place on the foot. My dog always got used to the vet wrapped bandage and would leave it alone. I'd change it once a day or when it got dirty. Seemed to work good. A couple of the cuts were very deep but always healed well with that method.
Bill

Tulley gets her 4 stitches out Friday she cut her right back pad. She has medication to prevent infection also the vet said to use a baby sock on it with tape that is "set" on and then pressed to stick because it is VERY easy to compress the artery to the foot and cut of circulation.

I would think that since it is oozing I would take it to the vet...it could save you ALOT of dough in the future.

No offense redside but for some reason my vet told me to never use hydrogen peroxide on a K-9 ??
I dont know why ??

[ 11-12-2003, 09:39 AM: Message edited by: Tulley ]

[Chromaflage]

Tulley - interesting - neither my vet nor the breeder I have worked with have a problem with it. The only reall issue is preventing it from getting it into the eyes or ears. I suppose alcohol is better anyway - that's what use in the field since alcohol wipes are included in most first aid kits.

ORS

[ 11-12-2003, 10:13 AM: Message edited by: OregonRedside ]

[James in Idaho]

Clean it and then superglue it. I'm not kidding. Don't glue yourself to the dog, and don't ask how I know that. Superglue should be in your doggie first aid kit. You can buy the medical type from your vet, but I use the regular old stuff. All on the advice of my vet.

[Chromaflage]

James - good point! Even ER docs are using it more.

[periwinkle]

Well, James beat me to it....superglue...... But I want to hear his story about gluing himself to his dog. :grin:

[James in Idaho]

Peri:

75 lbs of chessie, a bleeding ear and a tube of superglue. Ever try to unstick your finger from a chessie with a sore ear and you're stuck to it? It was an interesting couple of moments. I'd just as soon be glued to an alligator, the teeth are about the same. And on top of that, I managed to glue two fingers together!

[Salty Walty]

Another vote for superglue. Works well on split fingertips too.

[periwinkle]

James,, I don't know why I'm laughing, bet you weren't. :grin: Wish I'd been there with a video camera......might of won big money on that TV show. Think we could stage it again? :tongue: